Speedtest.net: Why do you fail your users?

So this morning I sent off an email to the folks at Speedtest.net after I tried using their site to check my connection speed on my iPad. Here’s the gist of my email.

“This morning I tried to use Speedtest.net on my iPad to check the connection speed of the wifi I’m using on my iPad3. I navigated to the site in Safari and was redirected automatically to the app page. Unfortunately the app isn’t an iPad app, it’s an iphone app. Yes, it will work but have you used an iPhone app on your iPad? So I clicked on the “Developer Site” button hoping to bypass the JavaScipt that evidently sniffed I was on a mobile device and sent me to the App Store. No such luck. I looped around and was back on the App Store. I’m a web developer and years of experience tell me this is a disservice to customers. Not giving users the option to choose which way they want to connect and forcing them to download the app from the app store, which while a native iOS app, isn’t optimized for their screen resolution is akin to giving them a plastic picnic knife to carve a steak. Sure, it’ll get the job done but it’s not what it was meant to do. Give your customers the option to download by presenting them with a responsive web page with a link to the App. Don’t force them into a loop that annoys and drives them away.”

Creating a web app is a great way to connect with your customers. Looking to see which device they’re connecting to your site from and forcing them to download your app, not cool and not kosher. Treat your customers as you’d want to be treated. Let them know you have an app available. Give them the option to download it. Don’t force them. If they want it they’ll download it.